Les lauréats du concours d'éloquence - Fête du Droit 2026 - Valenciennes - © UPHF

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Fête du droit 2026: when law questions pleasure

On March 12 and 13, UPHF and ISH hosted the Fête du droit 2026 and its national eloquence competition around the theme "Law and Pleasure(s)"

Eloquence competition: legal students debate the "right to pleasure".

The Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France and the Institut Sociétés & Humanités hosted the March 12 and 13.start="263">Institut Sociétés & Humanités hosted the March 12 and 13 Fête du droit, organized by the Conférence des doyens de droit et de science politique, in partnership with legal publisher LexisNexis.

The theme of this year's Fête du droit was "Law and Pleasure(s)". An eloquence competition on this theme brought together candidates selected from a large proportion of France's law faculties. They were 27 students who came to Valenciennes to plead on the subject: "A right to pleasure: necessity or futility?".

At the end of the semi-finals, held at the faculty of law and public administration before juries made up of the deans of various faculties of law in France, the final featured six students from the universities of Artois, Bordeaux, Évry, La Rochelle, Lyon 3 and Tours.

It was at the Tribunal judiciaire de Valenciennes, which agreed to be associated with this Fête du droit, that the finalists faced off in the beautiful historic courtroom of the tribunal, before a jury chaired by Madame Goutas, First Vice-President of the tribunal, and composed of Maître Marylin Lejeune, vice-bâtonnière of the Valenciennes bar, Professor Baptiste Bonnet, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne University and President-elect of the Conférence des doyens de droit et de science politique, the Professor Jean-François Riffard, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University Clermont Auvergne and coordinator of the Fête du droit, from Professor Nicolas Leblond, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Public Administration at UPHF/ISH, and finally from Madame Chrystel Faure, Director of Public Sector, Academic and Notary Strategy at LexisNexis.

The six finalists offered very profound pleadings, both funny and full of emotion and poetry, showing that the eventual consecration of a right to pleasure would raise the question of control of pleasure and, ultimately, that of freedom. To legislate pleasure would be to transform it: from a possibility, it would thus become an obligation and, rapidly, in the vein of the predictions of Orwell and Huxley, society could be transformed into a totalitarian dystopia in which privacy would be suppressed and intimacy controlled.

When the results were announced, Madame Goutas emphasized the depth of the candidates' words and their talent. She congratulated them on their courage in tackling serious subjects in such a light-hearted way, and told them that in her eyes, as in those of the jury, there was no doubt about it: a bright future lay ahead.

After a particularly eloquent closing argument, it was Mr. Anys Bennacer, from the University of Evry-Paris-Saclay, who was proclaimed winner of this 2026 edition of the Fête du droit, ahead of Madame Maelys Rodicq, from the university d'Artois, who offered a highly praised closing argument in alexandrines, and Madame Clara Rogez, from the University of Tours, who created a singular atmosphere that literally captivated the jury.

Some photos of the event

La délégation composée des candidats aux concours d'éloquence et leur responsable pédagogique, tous issus de plusieurs universités françaises, posent fièrement devant l'Hotel de ville de Valenciennes - L'auteur

L'un des candidats en pleine plaidoirie dans la salle d'audience historique du Tribunal judiciaire de Valenciennes - Service communication ISH

L'un des candidats en pleine plaidoiriel

L'un des candidats en pleine plaidoirie - Service communication ISH

Deux des membres du jury - Service communication ISH

Trois des membres du jury - Service communication ISH

Le public nombreux assiste aux plaidoiries dans la salle d'audience historique du tribunal - Le public nombreux assiste aux plaidoiries dans la salle d'audience historique du tribunal